


Baby's Five Nights

by PuppyLuv230



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Blood and Gore, But not quite, Follows Actual Gameplay, Game Spoilers, Gen, Mike is a girl named Michelle, almost major character death, canon minor character death, in 11th chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-02-27 08:57:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13244868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppyLuv230/pseuds/PuppyLuv230
Summary: A new building and an extra job leave Michelle Schmidt wondering what's in store for her at Circus Baby's Pizza World. But with desperate animatronics and deadly machines at their disposal, can she make it back to Freddy's alive?





	1. Introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own sister Location.

Try working a few nights at my friend's new restaurant, he said.

It'll be fun, he said.

Sorry. I got a little off topic there.

My name is Michelle Schmidt, if you don't already know me, but my friends call me Mike. I don't know why people nicknamed me that, but I believe it was a joke that started in elementary school and stayed with me. I'm 5 foot 9 with hazel eyes and long jet black hair that I usually wear in a ponytail. I am currently 28, and a bit of a night owl.

It's been three years since Jeremy's and my deal with Marion, The Puppet, and it seems like he trusts us, especially since we became friends with the spirits residing in the newer animatronics. They all like it when Fritz joins us, and it seems he's developed a strong liking to Freya, Toy Freddy, and I can tell there's definitely an attraction between Jeremy and Bonbon, Toy Bonnie. Even Springtrap has calmed down enough to be considered a friend, though when he does something nice for anyone, he completely denies he was doing it for them. I know it's cliché, but he does act like a tsundere at the best of times.

Becca came back with Nix about a year ago, so I introduced her to Jeremy, the newer animatronics, and even Fritz. She seems to get along well with Jeremy, and it was a relief when we found out Fritz was cleared from his Leukemia about two years ago and is doing well. The doctors said he may have a relapse sooner or later, but he hasn’t had one yet so we’re all keeping our hopes up.

Anyway, there was a point where a friend of Mr. Fred's, a man named William Afton, had asked if he could open a new branch of the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant. After a few legal details were settled, Mr. Afton opened a sister location to Freddy's called Circus Baby's Pizza World. When asked for help finding a late night technician, Mr. Fred told him he had someone who could help.

And that's where I come in. I work not only as a night guard at Freddy's, but I also graduated college with a major in Robotics Engineering. Pretty convenient, right?

But there was a lot there that put me on edge and made me fear for my life. Here's what happened…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting my idea for Sister Location typed out.
> 
> Sorry about the long hiatus. I've been busy with college and life in general.
> 
> This story will be more connected to the actual game than my other FNAF stories were, but I'm not following the theories. I'm just going to use the game content that's already there when you first play it.
> 
> William Afton is not a killer in this, just so you know.


	2. Night 0

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

~ At Freddy’s ~

"Michelle, may I speak with you privately?" Mr. Fred asked as Jeremy, Becca, and I sat in the Office, waiting for our shift to start in an hour. Yes, Becca was on the night shift. Her job was to keep track of the building’s inventory so the day workers would know what to order when it ran low. It seems strange to have someone just for that, but the day workers are usually unable to focus on that when they have to worry about helping customers and keeping kids from damaging anything and hurting themselves in the process. Everyone who knew Becca before she moved away was happy about that, especially Freddy. I guess the saying 'time makes the heart grow fonder' is true.

"Of course, sir," I responded, standing up from my seat and following him to the Main Hall.

We were just outside of the bathrooms when he stopped and turned to me, causing me to halt in my tracks.

"Have you heard of Circus Baby’s Pizza World?" Mr. Fred asked.

I nodded. "That’s the place your friend Mr. Afton opened four months ago, right? The branch off of this place you both agreed to?"

Mr. Fred nodded. "It seems he’s had some trouble hiring someone to work as a late night technician there. Says everyone he’s hired keeps quitting after just a few nights. I was wondering if…"

He trailed off, but I knew what he was going to ask.

"You want me to work for him and see what’s going on?" I finished.

He nodded. "I want you to try working a few nights at his restaurant, starting tomorrow. I won’t force you into anything you don’t want to do, but I know you’re qualified because after everything you’ve put up with here, you’re still willingly working as a night guard when anyone else would have left long ago. And I’m sure your degree in Robotics Engineering will come in handy, too. Who knows? From what William’s told me, it’ll be fun. "

I was skeptical about that last sentence. If everyone Mr. Afton hired as technicians quit after two or three nights, there was likely something going on that they didn’t know about.

"I’ll try it out," I responded, my curiosity on what was happening there getting the better of me. "I’ll stay for five nights. If nothing happens that’ll make me quit, I can probably help him find someone more suited for the job. I’m sure some of my old classmates wouldn’t mind working there if it checks out."

Mr. Fred smiled. "Thank you, Mike, but I’m sure William can find someone to work for him on his own. What you’re offering is much more than I can ask of you, and I don’t want you to feel obligated to do everything just because he’s been finding people who exaggerate their skills on their resumes. Now, I must get going. It’s getting late, and your shift is going to start soon. I’ll see you tomorrow."

I nodded as he turned to leave. Once I knew he was gone, I moved to go back into the Office to let Jeremy and Becca know. I was just about to pass the Parts & Service room when Bonnie’s voice sounded from behind the door.

"Y-you’re leaving for a job at another pizzeria, Mike?"

His voice sounded sad, as if he believed I was leaving for good. I stopped and opened the door, seeing Freddy, Chica, Foxy, Golden Freddy, and even Springtrap looking at me as if they thought so, too. I gave a soft smile in an attempt to put their minds at ease.

"I’m not leaving to work there permanently, guys. It’ll only be for five nights. I’m just going to check the place out. Mr. Fred said that everyone who works there as the late night technician quits after a few days, and I want to see if I can find out what’s going on."

They all seemed relieved after I finished my little spiel, though I could tell Springtrap was trying to hide it, and they walked out of the room to join the others near the Show Stage.

"Hmph, a few nights without one of the guards watching over our shoulders can’t be that bad," I heard Springtrap mutter.

I rolled my eyes at his comment and made my way to the Office to get Jeremy and Becca. As we talked over what was going to happen the five nights I’d be at Circus Baby’s Pizza World, the toy animatronics minus Marion ran into the room, the originals, Springtrap not included, behind them.

"Are you really leaving?" BB asked.

I opened my mouth to speak when Mangle cut me off.

"Why are you leaving?"

Again, I opened my mouth to reply, and again I was interrupted, this time by Bonbon.

"Don’t you like us anymore?"

"Guys-" I said, being cut off once more as everyone began talking at once.

It was impossible to get a word in, and the shouting only grew as they all tried to talk over each other. I tried to calm them all down, but nothing I did seemed to work. I noticed Marion standing behind all of them, obviously amused by my panic as he leaned against a wall with his arms crossed. I shot him a pleading look, and he seemed to chuckle at my expression before he moved around everyone and stood by my side. Everyone quieted down immediately when they noticed his presence, and I looked at him gratefully as I was finally able to speak.

"I’m only leaving for five days. Mr. Fred wanted me to go to a sister location that opened four months ago because the man who owns it, William Afton, has been having trouble hiring people for the late night technician position. I’m just checking it out because the people he hires leave after two or three nights and I want to know why. It’s not a permanent position. It’s just to see what’s going on."

"Oh," Freya responded.

"Th-that’s what we were trying to tell you," Bonnie said, a hint of anger in his voice.

"I told you not to jump to conclusions!" Springtrap’s voice sounded from down the hall.

"Have you ever been there before?" Chica asked. "Have you seen the other animatronics?"

I shook my head. "No, I haven’t, but I will soon."

As we all went to relax in the Show Stage and Game Area, Springtrap stopped me where he stood leaning just outside the doorframe in the Main Hall.

"Be careful when you go tomorrow night, Mike. You don’t know who or what you could be up against there."

I nodded at his words. He let me pass by him after that, though he remained leaning near the doorframe the rest of the night, watching as Becca, Jeremy, and I interacted with the others. He was still rough around the edges, but he was slowly warming up to us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got the next part done.


	3. Between the Nights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

"Alright, Mike," Mr. Fred said as he put down his phone once the call he made ended. We were settled by the Show Stage as children ran around us and played, me sitting on the edge of the stage out of the way of the kids view of the animatronics while Mr. Fred stood next to me. "I’ve settled everything with William. You’re working with him for five nights before coming back here. If you have any questions or concerns, he’ll be the one to go to."

I nodded. I was honestly excited at the prospect of working in a new building with new animatronics. Considering the place was called Circus Baby’s Pizza World, a Freddy animatronic wouldn’t be the center of attention.

I had only heard about the place when Mr. Fred gave the okay to build it, and Mr. Afton was said to have made the robots in his very own robotics corporation. They had been previously made models, and were being tested out with the public after years of being in storage. It would be interesting to see what they looked like and if any of them resembled the animatronics at Freddy’s, since the place was supposed to be a sister location to it.

"William will meet us here in about an hour or so to go over some rules with you," Mr. Fred continued. "Safety procedures, technology you’ll be working with, all that stuff. We’ll discuss this in the Office, since it will be quieter there. I’ll have to check on things in the kitchen before you’re done talking, so I’ll leave the rest to you."

I nodded again. Now I’ll be able to find out what’s going on and why people keep leaving the late night technician job.

()()()()

"Think you got everything, Michelle?" Mr. Afton asked. Mr. Fred had left the room about an hour ago, so it was just the two of us talking.

"I believe so," I replied. What he had told me was a lot of information to take in, though.

He laughed. "Don’t worry if you don’t. We have a HandUnit that will tell you what to do as you go through your tasks, and it’s usually specific to help avoid any confusion. It makes the job a lot easier."

"Why do people you hire keep leaving, then?" I asked.

"My past technicians have quit because of one thing or another, saying the animatronics are dangerous to be around," he explained. "Which is highly preposterous because my own employees built these robots themselves. Well, technically they’re from a company we partnered with, but still. I trust my employees to give me quality results. And I’m trusting you to do the same. Mr. Fred told me you’re one of his best employees, and I’m holding him to it that you’ll be a great addition to the team for the five nights I have you working for me."

I smiled at him, though I frowned on the inside. Dangerous animatronics? Sounded alarmingly similar to when I first started working at Freddy’s. Vincent couldn’t have worked there, though, since the place opened after he became Springtrap. Maybe the animatronics just had some sort of malfunction or something. They were older models put into storage, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case.

"I’ll do my best, sir," I replied. "And please, call me Mike."

"Great!" Mr. Afton said enthusiastically. "I’ll see you tonight, then. Have a good rest of the day, Michelle."

"It’s Mike," I replied, but he had already left the Office and was on his way out.

I sighed. Oh well. I should at least try to make the best of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the short chapter. Most of the ones between nights are going to be short, so please bear with me on this.


	4. Night 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

"Ready for your first night, Michelle?" Mr. Afton asked me as I entered the building, smiling at me.

"It’s Mike, sir, and yes I am," I said quietly.

"I’m sure you know what to do from here," Mr. Afton said. "Just take the elevator down and follow the instructions provided by our HandUnit, and be careful. You will be around machinery you can get hurt with if not careful, so stay safe and listen to the HandUnit."

I nodded, and Mr. Afton walked away, leaving me to my business. I entered the round elevator, and as my descent began, a robotic male voice greeted me.

"Welcome to the first day of your exciting new career! Whether you were approached at a job fair, read our ad in Screws, bolts, and hairpins, or if this is the result of a dare, we welcome you. I will be your personal guide to help you get started. I'm a model 5 of the Handyman's Robotics and Unit Repair System. But, you can call me "Handy-Unit". Your new career promises challenge, intrigue, and endless janitorial opportunities. Please enter your name as seen above the keypad. This cannot be changed later, so, please be careful."

I snickered at that. The screen in front of me, a thick yellow tablet-like keypad with two painted eyes attached to the floor, glitched so bad that it seemed impossible to put anything legible on it. Still, I tried, attempting to hit the correct buttons. An error message appeared on the device.

"It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad," the HandUnit said. "I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. One moment. Welcome Eggs Benedict!"

I burst out laughing at that, nearly falling to my knees as I lost the strength to stand from laughing so hard. Just like on a phone, autocorrect sucks. I took my time calming down to look around me as the glitchy keypad disappeared from view. 

There was a line of buttons on the elevator underneath the window to my right, a large red button, keypad, and what looked like a speaker near the door, and some pipes with valves to my left. A couple posters hung on the walls, one of a robotic ballerina that said "DANCE" under it, and the other a redheaded clownish girl robot with a baby animatronic hanging off her arm and the word "CELEBRATE" over them. It was hard to see them, though, because the fan spinning above me cast dark shadows and the lights would go out from time to time.

A loud beep suddenly echoed throughout the room, scaring me into standing up straight, and a few moments later the elevator stopped.

"You can now open the elevator using that bright, red, and obvious button. Let's get to work!" HandUnit said. 

I did as told, and the doors slid open, only for me to be greeted with yellow tape everywhere reading "DANGER".

'Strange', I thought to myself. 'Why is there caution tape here if this place was just opened four months ago? What happened?'

I then noticed the vent underneath all that tape, and decided to go through that. I had to be sent down here for a reason, right? Mr. Afton’s not dumb, after all. A little oblivious to those around him, but not dumb.

"Allow me to fill this somewhat frightening silence with some lighthearted banter," HandUnit finally said after I entered the vents. "Due to the massive success of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, it was clear that the stage was set (no pun intended) for another contender in children's entertainment. Unlike most entertainment venues, our robotic entertainers are rented out for private parties during the day, and it's your job to get the robots back in proper working order before the following morning."

'Ok,' I thought as I left the small ductway and looked around at the room I was now in. A giant fan sat center on the wall opposite from me, as well as a creepy clown mask, what looked to be a clock with a face, and… three blinking robotic baby heads? There was also a keypad, speaker, some monitors with a lot of static on them, another robotic head, and a covered vent with the word "DANGER" on it. Two large windows sat on either side of me, as well as a couple keypads with two buttons on them, one with a sun, the other with a lightning bolt. Both rooms beyond the windows were too dark to see through, but it seemed like there were vents that led to them, marked the same way as the first one.

"You are now in the primary Control Module," HandUnit spoke up. "It's actually a crawlspace between the two front showrooms. Now, let's get started with your daily tasks. View the window to your left. This is the Ballora Gallery: Party Room and Dance Studio, encouraging kids to get fit and enjoy pizza! Let's turn on the light and see if Ballora is onstage. Press the blue button on the elevated keypad to your left."

I did as told as the lights on the keypad lit up. A light came on center stage in Ballora’s room, but there was no one there.

"Uh oh!" HandUnit somewhat exclaimed. "It looks like Ballora doesn't feel like dancing. Let's give her some motivation. Press the red button now to administer a controlled shock. Maybe that will put the spring back in her step."

I froze at that. Shock the animatronics into doing what you want them to do? What on Earth was Mr. Afton thinking? After some consideration, I hesitantly pressed the button, instantly regretting it as the sound of something being electrocuted filled the room and a small amount of light from the electricity cast a dim glow in Ballora’s Gallery for a few seconds.

"Let's check the light again," HandUnit said.

I turned on the light once more, seeing the ballerina from the poster, along with what looked like four little wooden puppets who kinda reminded me of Marion, dancing on the stage. I mouthed a "sorry" to her when I saw her looking at me, almost angrily.

"Excellent," HandUnit responded almost happily. "Ballora's feeling like her old self again and will be ready to perform again tomorrow. Now, view the window to your right. This is the Funtime Auditorium where Funtime Foxy encourages kids to play and share. Try the light! Let's see what Funtime Foxy is up to."

I did as told once the lights for the buttons flicked on, silently hoping Funtime Foxy would be on her stage so I wouldn’t have to shock her too. The light lit up center stage, and much to my discontent but not surprise, she wasn’t there.

"Looks like Funtime Foxy is taking the day off," HandUnit spoke. "Let's motivate Funtime Foxy with a controlled shock."

I was really starting to hate that voice now. I hit the button, flinching as the sounds of electrocution and a dim light came from Funtime Foxy’s room. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and hit the button for the light again. Funtime Foxy still wasn’t on stage.

'Please don’t tell me I have to-' I thought before HandUnit cut me off.

"Let's try another controlled shock."

Of course.

I shook my head, really not wanting to do this. I would never do anything like this to my friends back at Freddy’s, so why should I do it to them?

I took a deep breath before following instructions and hitting the button. I immediately closed my eyes and blocked my ears from the nauseating sound.

Once I knew it was over, I opened my eyes and uncovered my ears before hitting the light button. Thankfully, Funtime Foxy was back on stage. I let out a relieved sigh and silently apologized to Funtime Foxy when she looked at me, seeming almost angrier than Ballora.

Now I understood why all the others left. Mr. Afton’s insane for having anyone subject themselves to this.

"Looks like Funtime Foxy is in perfect working order," HandUnit responded. "Great job! In front of you is another vent shaft. Crawl through it to reach the Circus Gallery Control Module."

I slowly made my way through the now open vent that had the "DANGER" warning on it, mentally shaking my head in frustration at the things I was putting these robots through.

"Motion Trigger: Circus Gallery Vent," a robotic female voice said, causing me to freeze for a moment.

"Oh," I realized. "She’s talking about me."

I slowly made my way into what I could assume was Circus Baby’s room. She was supposed to be the star of the place, after all, and the robotic female voice did say I was in the Circus Gallery Vent coming here.

Looking around, I noticed all the walls were windows and two dolls sat on the one opposite me, one hanging in the upper left corner and the other in the lower right corner on what looked to be a DJ system. Four colorful lights bathed the room in dim shades of blue, green, pink, and yellow when the disorienting light coming from somewhere to my left was blocked by what I could assume was a fan, much like in the elevator, and a poster of the redhead girl like the one in the elevator was taped to the window to the right of me.

Another keypad with two buttons sat in front of me, and I internally groaned at the offending device.

"On the other side of the glass is Circus Baby's Auditorium," HandUnit began. "Let's check the light and see what Baby is up to."

I sighed to myself as I hit the blue button for the lights to come on. At least this was the nicer part of the job. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t there, but I hated what I knew I would be asked to do now.

"Looks like a few of the lights are out, but we can fix that later," HandUnit commented. "Let's encourage Baby to cheer up with a controlled shock."

I ran a hand down my face in annoyance, hating this part of the job so much. When this is over, I have a piece of my mind I’d like to give to Mr. Afton. I hit the button, looking away from the scene but muscles tensing when the electricity kicked in. I looked up again and hit the blue button to illuminate the stage once more. Just like Funtime Foxy, she still wasn’t there.

"Let's try another controlled shock," HandUnit responded.

"Why can’t this night just be over already?" I whispered to myself as I hit the red button once more.

The sounds and dim light of the electricity resounded once more, but when I checked the stage again, Baby still wasn’t there.

"Great job, Circus Baby," HandUnit said, completely confusing me. She wasn’t on stage. "We knew we could count on you! That concludes your duties for your first night on the job. We don't want you to leave overwhelmed. Otherwise, you might not come back, like those who were here before you. Please leave using the vent behind you, and we'll see you again tomorrow."

I shrugged to myself, grateful I wouldn’t have to shock Baby again, and entered the vent. As I left, I heard something rattle either within the vent or near it, and I sped up my crawling, ignoring the female voice when it mentioned something (me) moving in the vent. I didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t sound friendly and I didn’t want to stick around.

I was finally done with my shift and out of there. At least, for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First night is done. I'm trying to keep the story as close to the canon story as possible while staying true to my first FNAF stories and one-shots.


	5. Video Chat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

"I swear, Circus Baby’s Pizza World is really weird, guys!" I said, video chatting with Becca and Jeremy on my laptop while relaxing at my apartment. "Mr. Afton has it so that the animatronics get basically electrocuted if they’re out of place there."

"Maybe they have an unwanted free-roam mode that he’s noticed, unlike Mr. Fred with Freddy and the others," Becca offered.

Nix, who was a full grown cat now and not at all the little puffball I’d picked up so long ago, jumped up onto the table Becca was sitting at in her apartment and blocked the entire camera as he stood in front of it. Becca picked him up and sat him on her lap, stroking his white fur and getting a very noticeable rumbling purr out of him.

Jeremy shook his head. "If that was the case, he would have likely hired someone to fix it. Tech like that wouldn’t be too hard to fix."

"Unless it’s severely outdated and Mr. Afton’s just too lazy to replace or upgrade it," Becca countered as she stopped petting Nix, getting a mew in response at the sudden lack of attention. She then started fondling his ears, making him rub his face against her hand and purr louder.

"That could be," I replied. "Mr. Afton’s not exactly business savvy when it comes to running a restaurant. He’s run a business building robots for how long now? Just because he has the mascots doesn’t mean he knows how to handle a place like that. I’ve noticed a lot of glitches in his system, and not just the touchscreen keypad in the elevator."

"True," Jeremy said.

"Still, it feels like there’s something there that I’m not understanding," I continued. "There was yellow caution tape over the entrance just outside of the elevator the employees use, and I had to crawl through vents to get to where I needed to go. Not to mention something was making noise near the vent I was in at the end of my shift. I’m wondering if something happened there that no one’s telling me."

"I’m sure you’ll figure it out, Mike," Becca encouraged. "You always do."

"Thanks," I responded, mentally drained but feeling a bit better since my friends were supporting me through this. If I didn’t have them, I don’t know what I’d do.

A door slammed open through Jeremy’s feed, and Fritz, who was now officially a teenager, came into view in the dining room where Jeremy sat.

"Hey, Mike," Fritz said, leaning over his stepbrother’s shoulder to see me on Jeremy’s screen.

"Hey, Fritz," I replied. "How are you doing?"

"Good. I’m getting ready to go to a friend’s birthday party at Freddy’s tomorrow, so that’ll be fun."

I smiled. "I might be able to see you there, then. I was planning on going there to check on some things anyway. The old animatronics need some repairs, too."

Fritz grinned. "Cool. I’ll see you there, then."

I nodded, and Fritz left my view on the screen.

"So, we’ll meet up at Freddy’s tomorrow?" Becca asked, putting Nix down on the floor.

"Only if you want to come," I responded. "For now, I’m just gonna relax until my shift tonight starts."

"Okay," Jeremy said. "See you tomorrow, Mike."

He then logged off of our video chat.

"Yeah, see you," Becca said before she logged off as well.

I sighed as I closed my laptop. Here goes another night at Circus Baby’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School starts up again in a week for me, so if I don't get this story done before then, it might go on hiatus for a while. I'll try to update this as much as I can before then, though.
> 
> A guest on fanfiction.net commented about why Mike pressed the shock button in the fourth chapter, and I wanted to let you all know I'm following the actual gameplay, which I don't believe will let the player continue on until they press the "controlled shock" button.


	6. Night 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

"Hello, Michelle," Mr. Afton greeted as I arrived back at Baby’s. "Are you ready for another night working here?"

"Uh, yes, sir," I replied, "and please, call me Mi-"

"I’ll see you in the morning," he interrupted, walking away. "Have a good night."

I huffed, crossing my arms as I watched him enter his car. Mr. Afton was actually a nice guy when he wanted to be, but he was being really rude right now.

I sighed and entered the elevator.

"Welcome back to another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes," HandUnit greeted. "We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now." The keypad from the first night popped up once again. "Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice. For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text only, press 3. For other options, press 4."

I laughed at that, part of me grateful for the change, though I knew I’d still have to use the electric shock keypads if the animatronics weren’t where they were supposed to be, and another part of me finding it humorous how he had said to choose a number when there weren’t any on this glitchy piece of trash.

I tried to type something in, but once again it wasn’t registering my request and showed me an error message.

"It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad," HandUnit replied. "I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for choosing Angsty Teen."

I stood silently as the keypad dropped out of view, silently chuckling to myself at the choice that was made. The elevator beeped, and it stopped descending not too long after.

"The elevator's stopped," a teenage boy’s voice sounded, making me snicker. "You know the routine. Get out now, or whatever. Stay here if you want."

"I like you already," I whispered to myself as I pressed the red button in the elevator and made my way through the vent.

"So, funny story, a dead body was found in this vent once," the teenage voice said, making me stop in my tracks. "M'kay, so, not that funny, but, it's a story."

'What the heck is wrong with this building?' I asked myself. 'Electrocuting robots, dead bodies in vents, I wouldn’t be surprised if this place closes soon.'

I soon entered the primary Control Module, looking between the rooms Ballora and Funtime Foxy were resided in.

"Alright, so, let's start with your nightly chores," the voice replacing HandUnit said. "You should check on Ballora, and make sure she's on her stage, but, whatever."

I did so, pressing the button that lit up her stage. She wasn’t there, but I could still see her. Either she was up close to the window or I was seeing her shadow, but she was still there.

"Huh. I guess Ballora has better things to do," the teen voice said. "Let's zap her! That should be fun."

Again, I was not happy doing so. I know they’re animatronics, but considering I have animatronics as close friends, it didn’t feel right doing this. I know my friends are ghosts trapped in robotic bodies, but still.

Taking a deep breath, I hit the red button. The second the electricity stopped, a sound I couldn’t quite identify echoed throughout the room. It almost sounded like a garbled voice, warped beyond recognition. Was that coming from the HandUnit or Ballora?

"Let's check on Funtime Foxy, make sure she's ready for showtime tomorrow," the teenage voice said after the garbled voice disappeared.

'What?' I asked silently, confused. 'You’re not going to have me check the lights to make sure she’s on her stage?'

I shivered and hit the light button for Funtime Foxy. Once again she was off stage but I could see her either right at the window or that was just her shadow.

"Great... Great... Great..." a deep voice bellowed, scaring me. That wasn’t the voice for HandUnit or the teen.

"There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer," HandUnit finally said, overriding the deep voice. "Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium."

I did as told, wondering why I wasn’t instructed to shock Funtime Foxy but glad I didn’t have to. It’s only been four months since this place was opened and already it seems to be coming apart at the seams.

"Circus Baby had a busy day today," HandUnit said as I entered the room viewing Baby’s stage. "Let's check the light and make sure she's in proper working order."

I pressed the button for the lights, but Baby still wasn’t on stage.

"Oh, Circus Baby!" HandUnit practically cooed. "We aren't here to play hide and seek. Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock."

I hesitantly hit the button and looked away, waiting for the sound of something being electrocuted to fill the room, but instead the button seemed to burn out before anything could happen. When I opened my eyes again, nothing had changed.

"Let's try another controlled shock," HandUnit suggested.

I hit the button in curiosity, a part of me praying it wouldn’t work. To my combined surprise and relief, the same thing happened and the button burned out.

"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby," HandUnit explained. "Please stand by while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen. Commencing system restart."

'Really?!' I wanted to yell as the power cut off with a high-pitched whine. 'You can’t wait until I’m in a safer spot to do that?!'

After a moment of silence, the sound of something moving caught my attention before the female voice I heard in the vents spoke.

"Motion Trigger: Entryway Vent… Funtime Auditorium Maintenance Vent Opened... Ballora Gallery Maintenance Vent Opened."

I could hear more movement as the female voice ended, but then a girl’s voice, much younger sounding than the one from the vents, began to speak.

"I don't recognize you. You are new. I remember this... scenario, however. It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this, willingly. Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance. There is a space under the desk. Someone before you crafted it into a hiding place, and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry, though. You will be safe there. Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest."

I was shocked to silence by the voice. This was unexpected. Who were "they" and why did I need to hide from whoever it was? Too stunned to do anything else, I obeyed her words and entered the space under the desk. There was a small door there with holes in it that I closed behind me, listening to the sounds of something crawling through the vents once it was fully shut.

I could hear my ragged breaths and pounding heart as they seemed to get closer. I closed my eyes and tried to even out my breathing, only for them to get caught in my throat and my eyes to open wide as a teasing, child-like voice spoke.

"Hello in there," it seemed to say in a sing-song tone, sending my nerves on end. I looked around before catching a baby blue eye peeking through one of the holes. I immediately looked away, remembering the advice given to me only moments ago. 

There was a small pause before…

"Someone is inside," someone said, though I couldn’t tell if it was the same voice or a different one. They sounded so similar.

"Is it the same person?" another voice asked. There were at least two of them, from what I could tell.

There was another pause before the sound of something metal being picked up filled the cramped space, followed by what I could only assume was chiseling. More silence followed after that.

"Knock, knock," one of the voices said before the sound of the door opening caught my attention.

I quickly grabbed the door and pulled it shut as hard as I could. Whatever they were, they were strong, and I had to fight to keep the door shut. They seemed to give up at one point, and I let out a relieved breath I didn’t know I was holding, until I heard them speak again.

"We always find a way inside," one of them taunted before the door began being pulled open once more.

I managed to keep it closed enough that they couldn’t get in, but I had no idea how long it would take before they’d give up. The door gave way in my favor once more, and I slid it closed.

"She’s watching us," one of them whispered.

"We have to leave now."

Once again, I had no idea who was talking, but a chill ran up my spine as someone spoke once more.

"We’ll see you again soon." There seemed to be glee laced in the voice before they dropped the metal object they held from before and left.

Not long after, the voice from before, who I could only assume was Baby, sounded once more.

"When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful. That you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room. If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you, and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near. Listening for you. Wait and be still."

Her voice cut out just before HandUnit’s voice returned, leaving all my questions I wished to ask unanswered. What’s going on here? How did she know that would happen?

"Thank you for your patience. It seems like the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module."

I was tentative to listen, still shaken from the events prior to now, but there was no other way out, was there. I sighed and exited the hiding space, entering the vents and heading to the room I first came into.

"You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora gallery using the vent to your left to reach the breaker room," HandUnit explained. "It is recommended that you stay low to the ground, and reach the other side as fast as possible, as to not disturb Ballora. I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create an auditory disturbance. Deactivating..."

I sighed and entered the now open vent, ignoring the female voice telling me what I already knew. I slowly made my way to the barely lit door on the other side of the room, wincing each time my footsteps were too loud for my liking. I could hear her music, and I stopped and held my breath each time she got near. 

"It seems you are taking a long time," HandUnit suddenly blasted through the speakers of the room, nearly deafening me. "Please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible."

'Are you kidding me?!' I silently raged. 'Are you serious?! You nearly gave me a heart attack and ignored your own advice! Jerk!'

Once I got back the air that was knocked out of my lungs from the shock of the loud sound, I hurried to the door, trying to be careful not to make too much noise. Right at the door, I heard her music right behind me and had to stop so she wouldn’t catch me. In order to calm myself and keep from making any noise, I kept my eyes on the poster of a purple and white version of Freddy with a mini version of Bonbon for a right hand and the words "GET READY" hanging above them. Once Ballora’s music died down, I made a break for the door, getting there just before she could get me.

The female voice from the vents sounded.

"Motion Trigger: Breaker Room."

"You may now interface with the breaker control box," HandUnit said. "Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics. If you feel that you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily, until it is safe to reconnect."

I looked around, noticing the intimidating silhouette of the animatronic from the poster on the door, only illuminated by the sparks flying off of the wires around us. I tried out the "mascot response audio" given to me, not liking the results as I heard a laugh.

"Well, well, hello again," a higher male voice than HandUnit’s spoke, and I turned to look at the animatronic to my right. Was it the bear who spoke? Or was it the bunny?

I turned to the screen of the interface and began restarting the systems for each room. I could hear movement, and I quickly dropped the screen and hit the audio, but not before hearing the male voice again and seeing the animatronics right in front of me.

"Come on out and say hi to our friend…"

Once I knew they were back in their spot and neither of them were moving, I went back to the screen and continued my task, but became alert when once again the voice sounded.

"I know you’re out there somewhere!"

I jumped at that, hitting the audio feed on accident but glad I did.

The night kept going like that while the voice kept taunting me and the animatronic kept moving closer, only for me to send it back with the audio. Finally I was down to my last restart and finished it quickly. I didn’t want to be there anymore.

"Great job," HandUnit said. "This completes your tasks for the night. Please proceed back through the Ballora gallery with care, and we'll see you back here tomorrow."

I slowly exited the room and made my way through Ballora’s room. Halfway through, though, I heard a voice that I believe was Ballora’s.

"Is someone there?"

My breath hitched and I froze, but I soon found the strength to continue on.

"I can hear someone creeping through my room," she continued.

I froze in place again, wanting to look at her and respond to her but at the same time wanting to get out of there. Something about this place didn’t feel right. Almost as if something bad was in store for me if I didn’t leave now.

"Perhaps not," she finished, and I made my way out of the room and out of the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention in the previous chapter that I edited the intro to accommodate for it because I forgot I made it so that three years had passed since my FNAF 2 series, so Fritz would be 13 now.


	7. Springtrap's Confession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

"Seriously, something’s wrong there," I said to Becca and Jeremy as we talked in the Main Hall, watching as children passed us by, chasing each other in what looked like a game of tag.

Fritz and his friends were in the arcade part of the Game Area, having a contest on who could get the best score in all the games we had there. I had just finished some minor repairs on the animatronics in the Parts & Service room. I may have been working for Mr. Afton at the time, but I was still a Freddy’s employee.

"Why?" Becca asked. "What happened?"

"It’s…hard to explain," I replied. "I think the animatronics there are similar to the ones here."  
"How so?" Jeremy questioned.

"I think they’re haunted, just like Freddy and the others," I said. "They were aware of what’s going on around them, and I don’t think it was an AI unit doing the thinking for them. Baby was completely conscious of the fact that I hadn’t worked there before, even though she couldn’t see me, not to mention the power at that time had been cut and she should have likely been down with the system at the time. She told me of things that had happened before, too, and gave me instructions on what to do when the power was out that likely saved my life. There was at least two other…things in the room with me, and they didn’t seem very friendly."

"Have you seen anything like that with the others there?" Becca spoke.

I nodded. "The first night I worked there, Ballora and Funtime Foxy seemed angry at me when I shocked them, and last night Ballora noticed I was in her room and tried to talk to me as I was leaving. I didn’t even know she could talk."

"And did you reply to her?" Jeremy asked.

I shook my head. "Something kept me from saying anything to her. I just felt like I was in danger if I stayed there… I honestly don’t know what to think."

"Mike," a familiar voice half-whispered, half-spoke from the Parts & Service room.

I looked over to see Springtrap peeking out from behind the door and trying to motion me over to him. Becca and Jeremy stayed outside and talked while I entered the room. He was the only one active out of all of the animatronics back there, and I figured it was because he was in a suit with spring locks that didn’t have an endoskeleton inside it to determine when it would be able to move around.

"What is it, Springtrap?" I questioned. He’s never moved around or even taken the chance of being seen by anyone other than us since he became an animatronic, so it had to be serious if he was risking being caught just to tell me something.

"I overheard what you were talking about," he replied, "and I think I know what’s going on. I’m just wondering what those animatronics you saw at the other pizzeria look like."

"Why do you want to know?" I asked.

"Just tell me!" he snapped, though he attempted to keep his voice down so no one outside of the room could hear him.

"Alright, alright," I responded, motioning for him to calm down. "There’s Ballora, a white and dark blue or purple ballerina- it’s hard to tell with how dim the lights are-, Funtime Foxy, a pink and white fox that kinda looks like a non-mangled version of Mangle, a purple and white version of Freddy with a Toy Bonnie lookalike as a right hand, and-"

"-a clown girl with red pigtails," Springtrap finished.

I nodded. "How did you know?"

Springtrap let out a chuckle. "You know how I said I used to work for a place that made robots?"  
I nodded again.

"I was the one who built those animatronics," Springtrap continued. "That was before my job here at Freddy’s, and before the merger with Afton Robotics Inc. The clown girl, Circus Baby as my colleagues would call her, was my first one, and the most difficult in design to build than the others. She was actually the one to cause my little pastime."

"You mean she-?" I began, only for him to cut me off with a nod.

"It was an accident, I swear it was, but a little girl got too close to the animatronic. Baby and the others were being tested with groups of children, and they were warned not to be alone with any of the animatronics just in case something unwanted happened. But that little girl didn’t listen. Something went wrong with the robot when the little girl was alone, and an addition I was still working on malfunctioned. When she got too close to Baby, she was pulled inside and killed from the force of it. I didn’t realize it until I went to do some repairs on her at the end of the day. I hid the body and cleaned Baby out of any traces of blood. Something just…snapped inside me when I saw it and made me want to know what it would be like to kill for myself, and it scared me. I was able to keep the urge under control with that anxiety, but the first death at my own hands started to make the fear fade."

I swallowed thickly. "So the animatronics at Circus Baby’s likely have the souls of children in them as well?"

Springtrap nodded.

I sighed. "Even after death, you’re still causing trouble for me, huh?"

He crossed his arms and huffed, sending me a half-hearted glare. He knew I was just joking with him. Still, I needed to find out what to do to help those children if their souls really are trapped in the robots at Circus Baby’s.


	8. Night 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

Mr. Afton did not greet me tonight, as I had expected from the previous two nights. Instead, I found myself immediately being sent to work as I entered the elevator.

"Welcome back to another pivotal night of your thriving new career, where you get to really ask yourself: What am I really doing with my life? What would my friends say? And, most importantly, will I ever see my family again?" HandUnit asked, making me feel as though I really shouldn’t be working here. "We understand the stresses of a new job, and we're here for you! To help you reach a more stable and relaxing frame of mind, we offer several musical selections to help make this elevator ride as relaxing and therapeutic as possible. We offer contemporary jazz, classical, rain forest ambiance, as well as a wide selection of other choices. Using the keypad below, please type the first few letters of the musical selection you would prefer."

I sighed as the glitchy keypad popped up, not really caring at this point. The yellow electronic was starting to really annoy me. Either way, it wouldn’t hurt to see what this glitchy thing would give me for this choice. I only hit one button before the error message popped up.

"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad," HandUnit said. "I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for selecting Casual Bongos."

I couldn’t help laughing at that. What the heck was with this place and its technology? Vincent may have screwed up the animartonics, but the rest of it wasn’t anything he’d tampered with.

"Now that your elevator experience has been customized to your needs, and you're thoroughly relaxed, it's worth mentioning that due to your lackluster performance yesterday, your pay has been decreased by a substantial amount. Please enjoy the rest of your descent."

My mouth dropped.

"Are you kidding me?! What did I do wrong?!" I asked out loud, not getting a response. That must have been why Mr. Afton was avoiding me.

The elevator stopped, and I opened the door and entered the vents.

"Due to unforeseen malfunctions from today's shows, your nightly duties will require you to perform maintenance that you may or may not be skilled enough to perform," HandUnit explained. "It became necessary for technicians to attempt to disconnect Funtime Freddy's power module. However, they were unsuccessful. Allowing them to try again would be an inefficient path forward, as we would need to allow 6-8 weeks for recovery and physical therapy. You will need to reach the Parts & Service room on the other side of Funtime Auditorium to perform the procedure yourself. Let's check on Ballora first and make sure she's on her stage."

Perform maintenance, huh? Shouldn’t be too hard, then. I didn’t learn this stuff in college for nothing, and there’s a reason why I’m able to perform repairs on the animatronics at Freddy’s. Hopefully, if there really are ghosts inside these robots, they’d at least let me try to help.

I exited the vents and hit the blue button to light up Ballora’s stage. She was there, alright, but she seemed to be…completely mangled? What in the world…?

"Great," HandUnit responded. "It looks like everything is as it should be in Ballora Gallery. Let's check on Funtime Foxy. It's important to make sure she's on her stage before entering."

Something definitely wasn’t right here. Was it the ghosts doing this, or was it something else?

I gulped and hit the light for Funtime Foxy, not seeing her on the stage. Great, I’d have to shock her and make her angrier at me before going into her room.

"Great," HandUnit said, completely catching me off guard. "It looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium. There is no need to check on Baby tonight. Please refrain from entering unauthorized areas. Proceed directly to Funtime Auditorium."

I paused for a second and shook my head as two vents opened, the one for Funtime Auditorium, and the one to Baby’s room. After a moment of decision, my curiosity won out and I crawled through the Circus Gallery Vent. The room was dark, no light at all, but I went under the desk and closed the door to the hiding space. After a moment of silence, I heard Baby’s voice. And I could only sit there and listen.

"Did you know that I was onstage once? It wasn't for very long. Only one day. What a wonderful day, though. I was in a small room with balloons and a few tables. No one sat at the tables, though, but children would run in and out. Some were afraid of me. Others enjoyed my songs. Music was always coming from somewhere else, down the hall. I would always count the children. I'm not sure why. I was always acutely aware of how many were in the room with me. Two, then three, then two, then three, then four, then two. Then none. They usually played together in groups of two or three. I was covered in glitter. I smelled like birthday cake. There were two, then three, then five, then four. I can do something special. Did you know that? I can make ice cream. Although I only did it once. There were four, then three, then two, then one. Something happened when there was one. A little girl, standing by herself. I was no longer myself. And I stopped singing. My stomach opened, and there was ice cream. I couldn't move. At least, not until she stepped closer. There was screaming for a moment, but only for a moment. Then other children rushed in again, but they couldn't hear her over the sounds of their own excitement. I still hear her sometimes. Why did that happen?"

I was stunned. Why was she aware of how many children were with her? Was that little girl…inhabiting Baby now? Did she have Baby’s memories, too?

I slowly exited the hiding space and began crawling back through the vent to continue my task, Baby’s words still ringing in my ears. 

I entered into Funtime Auditorium as the female voice announced the vent was open.

"Unlike Ballora, Funtime Foxy is motion activated," HandUnit explained. "For this reason, it is important to keep the room dark, as to not accidentally activate her. You have been provided with a flash beacon. Use it if you need to get your bearings, and to ensure you don't bump into anything. However, use it as sparingly as possible. Proceed forward to reach the Parts & Service room."

Slowly I made my way through Funtime Auditorium, using the timer on the flash beacon to measure how much time to wait between movements after I’d sprint. I could hear her moving around me even in the dark, so I knew that wasn’t what kept her still, but I should have already known that from what Springtrap told me. Just like with Ballora, I’d have to take my time.

I eventually made it to the door on the other side of the room and closed it behind me. The female voice spoke once again.

"Motion Trigger: Parts & Service."

"Great job reaching Parts & Service," HandUnit commented. "It seems that Funtime Freddy is out of power, which should make your job much easier. The release switch for the chest cavity is located on the underside of the endoskeleton jaw. To reach it, we will first need to open the face plates. You will need to press the face plate release triggers in a specific order, and it's important to be as precise and as careful as possible. Locate the small button on Freddy's face, just under his right cheek, and press it."

I did as told, pressing the small white button gently.

"Great! Now locate the button under his left cheek and press it."

I carefully pressed the white button specified.

"Great! Now carefully locate and press the button next to Freddy's right eye."

I had a harder time finding the button near his eye, but I eventually found the button almost blended in perfectly with his paint and pushed it.

"Great! Now carefully locate and press the button next just above Freddy's nose."

I did as told, only to jump back as the pieces covering his face suddenly opened and revealed the endoskeleton underneath. My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to calm myself.

"Good job," HandUnit said. "The face plates should now be open. Locate and press the small button on the underside of Freddy's endoskeleton jaw."

A small white object protruding from Funtime Freddy’s lower jaw caught my attention. It was the only thing there that looked like a button besides the rivets holding his teeth, and I carefully pushed it, hoping it was the right thing.

I jumped as the chest opened, though not as much as when the face plates moved.

"Excellent. The chest cavity should now be open. Remove the power module from the chest cavity."

I could see a round object with a small red light flashing at me from the upper right side of the round circle on his chest and carefully picked it up.

"Great work," HandUnit replied. "You will now be required to remove the secondary power module from the Bonnie hand puppet. Press the large, black button beneath Bonnie's bowtie to release the power module."

I looked towards Funtime Freddy’s right hand, but the Bonnie puppet wasn’t there. As I looked around, I saw the mini Bonnie moving around, using Funtime Freddy as a shield whenever I looked directly at him.

I internally smirked as an idea came to me, and when I found mini Bonnie again, I used my peripheral vision to let him come out just enough to where I could hit the button under his bowtie. It took a few tries, but eventually I was able to press it, and he froze in place once I did.

"Great work," HandUnit said. "You've acquired both power modules. This completes your tasks for the night. Please exit the building through Funtime Auditorium, and we'll see you back here again tomorrow."

I used the same technique getting out as I did coming in, taking my time between sprinting after using the flash beacon before stopping to let Funtime Foxy cool down. Right as I got to the vent, though, Funtime Foxy caught me, and everything went black.


	9. Night 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

I slowly awoke, a pain throbbing in my head, before I looked around, noticing I was in some sort of metal suit. A red light flashed in the dark, and I could just barely make it out through one of two holes that were level with my eyes. I tried to move, but there was hardly any space to do so. Just when I was about to call out for help, Baby’s voice cut me off.

"Shh! Be still and quiet. You've been sleeping for quite a while. I think they noticed that you never left the building last night. The cameras were searching for you. But they couldn't find you. I have you hidden too well. I kidnapped you."

I started shaking the suit around me, trying to see if I could loosen it and crawl out. As I did so, Baby started talking again.

"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. I am only going to keep you for a little while. Try not to wiggle, though. You're inside something that came from my old pizzeria. I don't think it was ever used - at least, not the way it was ever meant to be used. Too dangerous. It's just big enough for one person to fit inside. But just barely."

I stopped moving at that. This was one of the suits Vincent used to stuff people into and kill them, wasn’t it? I needed to be careful so as not to set off anything within the suit that could kill me.

"You're in the scooping room," Baby continued. "Do you know why they call it 'the scooping room'? It's because, dummy, this is the room where they use the scooper. I thought that would be obvious. Isn't that a fun name for something? "The scooper." It sounds like something you would use for ice cream, or custard, or sprinkles. It sounds like something you would want at your birthday party, to ensure that you get a heaping portion of every good thing. I wonder, though, if you were a freshly-opened pint of ice cream, how you would feel about something with that name. Thankfully, I don't think a freshly opened pint of ice cream feels anything at all. Uh-oh. It sounds like someone else is in the building. Shh!"

"Okay, bring her over," an unknown male voice spoke. "More, mooore... okay, stop. Set her down. Waaatch the step."

"What happened to it this time?" another male voice asked.

"Just seems like these things can't go a day without breaking down," the first man said. "Who knows, it's always the same, man. Some kind of hardware malfunction."

"Well, I have to be somewhere in, like, 15 minutes," the second guy commented. "This place gives me the creeps. Can we just get this over with? It's all automated, we don't have to be here for it. Just get it on the rollers and we can go."

Loud mechanical noises filled the room, and Ballora soon entered my line of sight, moving on what I could only assume was a conveyor belt. The sounds soon stopped, and Ballora stood right next to me in the dark, eyes closed and mouth open, still as a statue. An uncomfortable silence passed before Baby spoke once more.

"There's something very important that I've learned how to do over time. Do you know what that is? How to pretend. Do you ever play make-believe. Pretend to be one way, when you are really the other? It's very important. Ballora never learns. But I do. They think there is something wrong on the inside. The only thing that matters is knowing how to pretend."

A low beeping suddenly sounded throughout the room, and something just out of my view crashed into Ballora, a sound similar to a car backing into another vehicle resounding off the walls, until it seemed she fell apart. A single violet eye seemed to peer at me from the broken frame, flickering in unsteady light.

"I'll open the face plates for you," Baby said, opening the metallic pieces around my face and giving me a better look at what was left of Ballora. "That way, they can find you on the cameras. Now, all you have to do is wait. I'd recommend that you keep the spring locks wound up. Your breathing and your heartbeat are causing them to come loose. You don't want them to get too loose. Trust me."

There were ten spring locks around me, slowly coming loose with every minuscule movement I made. I managed to pry one of my arms out of the suit so I could wind them back up again. I couldn’t escape the suit. I knew that. I wouldn’t have enough time before the spring locks would snap on me, very much able to kill me in the same way Vincent died.

I managed to get them all wound back up when a small figure climbing the suit I was in caught my attention. It looked like the wooden puppets Ballora had on stage with her, but in the dark, I was hard to tell. I didn’t want to shake the suit and loosen the spring locks, so I just let them climb, and some of them even entered the suit, making the space tighter than it needed to be. It seemed like as long as I didn’t shake the suit while they’re coming in, they wouldn’t attack me, so I only focused on keeping the spring locks fully wound and shaking the ones climbing up the sides off when they got too high up.

I spent three hours doing this, battling the suit for my very life, before one of the wooden puppets came right up to my face. Amber eyes met mine, but before it could do anything to me, I heard the door to the room open and everything stopped. A jumble of voices met my ears before faces of unknown people, male and female, met my line of sight and pulled me out of the deathtrap I was stuck in while holding the spring locks still so I wouldn’t be harmed.

A group of paramedics pulled me outside and to their ambulance to check over me and ask a few questions about what happened. Apparently I was lucky enough to get away with a black eye, a mild concussion, a mild case of dehydration that was easily treated with an IV, and a large bump on the back of my head from where I was knocked out.

Once everything was said and done, Mr. Afton came up to me, a mix of a happy but grim look on his face.

"I’m sorry you had to go through that, Michelle. I’m glad you are alright. Mr. Fred was worried sick about you when you were reported missing yesterday. And as for the restaurant, I’m closing it down after tomorrow night and scrapping the animatronics. We don’t need any lawsuits on our hands from these machines if they do anything like that to our customers. Your commitment to us is highly valued, and I hope to work with you sometime in the near future."

He offered his hand to me, and I nodded before shaking it. There was just one thing I needed to do before the place closed and the robots because extra parts. I needed to find a way to free the souls of the children trapped within them.


	10. Is it Possible?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

"I’m glad you’re alright, Mike," Jeremy said as he, Becca, and I sat in the Office. It was the only place we could sit in privacy at Freddy’s and wouldn’t be bothered by Fazbear patrons due to it being an "employees only" area.

The day guard was currently busy settling a dispute between two sets of parents who were mad at each other because one kid accidentally ran into the other while playing cops and robbers, both getting minor scrapes and bruises from the crash, so we had some time on our hands before he’d come back and want us to leave the room.

"What happened?" Becca asked, finally voicing a question I knew she’d been dying to ask since she found out that the staff at Circus Baby’s found me in the spring locked suit.

"It’s honestly kinda fuzzy," I replied, holding my head a bit. There was still an ache in the back of my skull where I had been hit, and my memory was a bit hazy, but I could recall most of what had happened. "I remember I followed the instructions given to me the third night I was there, but when I was about to leave after my shift was over, Funtime Foxy jumped me. Next thing I knew, I was in a spring locked suit like the one Springtrap has and Baby was saying she kidnapped me and gave me instructions to survive the night until someone found me."

"So what’s going to happen now?" Becca questioned once more.

I shook my head. "I don’t know. Mr. Afton said he’d close down the restaurant and scrap the animatronics after tonight, but if there are children’s souls in there like what Springtrap and I think, I need to find a way to free them so they don’t have to keep suffering."

"How are you going to do that?" Jeremy spoke up.

"I’m not sure," I replied. "I haven’t been able to help the children here yet, so I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to help the ones at Circus Baby’s."

"Maybe there’s a way to bring their souls over here to Freddy’s," Becca suggested. "It’ll be easier to free them then."

I sighed. "I don’t know if there’s even a way to do that. They’re likely trapped inside the animatronics. It’s not like I can physically pull them out and bring them here with me. I don’t think it’s that easy or works that way."

"You’ll have to be quick about finding something to help them," Jeremy reminded me. "You only have one more night to figure it out before it’s too late."

I nodded. "I know. That’s my main concern right now. I’m not an expert when it comes to the paranormal, but I don’t want those kids to suffer anymore. They didn’t deserve what they got, and I want to help them. The question is: how can I help them?"

"I’m sure something will come up that will give you an idea," Becca said. "Just be careful, Mike."

Jeremy nodded in agreement. "Yeah. After what happened last night, it’s better to be cautious."

"You were missing for over twenty four hours, Mike!" Becca added. "All of us were worried about you! Even Springtrap was pacing around after Mr. Fred told us they couldn’t find you at Circus Baby’s even though you hadn’t left! We thought you were killed or something!"

"Trust me, I’m keeping my guard up tonight," I responded. "I just hope there is a way to free their souls."


	11. Night 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.
> 
> WARNING: Gore and Canon Minor Character Death.

I arrived alone to work that night, as Mr. Afton had flown to another state the previous day to sort out some business in another company of his. There had been a disagreement about the design for something, from what I was told, and he had to be there to explain it because they were getting nowhere by talking over the phone.

"Welcome back to your last day on the job," HandUnit greeted. "That is, the last day of your first week. Some of the most valued qualities that we like to see in new employees are determination, fearlessness, and a genuine disregard for instinctive self-preservation. You've earned your one week bonus which will be given to you in the form of a delightful gift basket, the cost of which will be taken out of your next paycheck. We have gift baskets containing fruit, nuts, flowers, and of course, the ever-popular cash basket. Using the keypad below, please enter the first few letters of the gift basket you would like to receive."

I rolled my eyes and hit a random button on the screen of the keypad, not really caring what it was because it was still being taken out of my paycheck unless Mr. Afton decided to give it to me for free since he was closing down the restaurant.

"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad," HandUnit said. "I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for selecting Exotic Butters."

I chuckled a bit at that, slightly amused with the choice the autocorrect gave me. It wasn’t a bad one, either. There’s a lot of stuff I can make with that, and I’m sure Chica would love to use some of them for her baking. I just had to survive one more night and find a way to free the children’s souls.

"Please be aware that there are still two technicians on site today," HandUnit continued. "Try to avoid interfering with their work, if possible. Also, feel free to ask them why they are still there, and encourage them to go home."

'They were supposed to go home?' I asked myself. 'Why didn’t they leave already? Did something happen to them?'

The elevator stopped, and I opened the door and went into the vent, hoping I wouldn’t find any dead bodies. Nothing was in the vent. As I entered the room between Ballora’s and Funtime Foxy’s, HandUnit spoke up.

"Let's check on Ballora, and make sure she's on her stage."

I hit the button for the light, only for my breath to hitch, just barely keeping myself from screaming. One of the two technicians that were mentioned was hanging by the neck in her room, dead. I reeled back, stunned by the sight as the light turned off.

"Great," HandUnit spoke, completely oblivious to what was really in the room. "Now, let's check on Funtime Foxy."

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, though I was still shaking from what I had just witnessed, and hit the light for Funtime Auditorium, bracing myself for what was to come. As I had predicted, the second technician was hung in the room, too, mirroring the first one. A nauseous feeling overcame me, and I dropped to my knees in an attempt to settle my stomach and not have to look at the figure anymore.

"Great," HandUnit said. "It looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium. Your task today will involve more maintenance work. Circus Baby had a rough day, and is in need of repair. You will be required to reach the Parts & Service room by once again sneaking through Funtime Auditorium. As always, please proceed with caution."

The vent to Funtime Auditorium opened, and I was hesitant to enter. These souls were a lot more violent than I had anticipated, and I didn’t know if there was anything I could do to help them. I began making my way through the room, noticing there was no sounds of movement other than my own. I made it to the door without any trouble, making me even more nervous than when Funtime Foxy actually was in the room with me.

An animatronic sat in front of me in Parts & Service: Circus Baby.

"Great job reaching Parts & Service," HandUnit spoke. "Circus Baby has been deactivated for an unknown reason. It's your job to make sure she's structurally stable and secured to the conveyor. Our technicians will take it from ther-"

The male voice was cut off and soon replaced by Baby’s.

"Can you hear me? I'm pretending. Remember how I said I could pretend? The cameras are watching. I must be careful not to move. Something bad happened yesterday. Something bad always happens. I don't want it to happen again. There is something bad... inside of me! I'm broken. I can't be fixed. I'm going to be taken to the scooping room soon, but it's not going to fix what's wrong with me. What is bad is always left behind. Will you help me? I want you to save what is good, so the rest can be destroyed and never recovered. But you must be careful. Ballora is here. In the room, with us. Ballora will not return to her stage. Ballora will not return to her body. You must be careful. You must remain calm, and listen to my voice. There is a button on my cheek. You must find it and press it."

I nodded and searched for the button. It blended in with her skin so well, but I found it just above her right cheek, matching with the white paint almost perfectly. It opened a part just under both of her pigtails, revealing a keypad attached to the right side of her endoskeleton head.

"There is a passcode that you must enter before you can retrieve me," Baby continued. "Enter the code carefully. 1. 2. 1. 4. 7. 5. 8. 2. 3. 7."

I followed her instructions as she gave them.

"Good. A hatch should have opened. Take the card that you find inside."

I looked around, finding the hatch on her upper left arm. A card flickering green light was attached to her endoskeleton, and I carefully picked it out from the wires.

"Now you must turn back," Baby said. "I will guide you through Funtime Auditorium so you can reach the scooping room. When you are there, I want you to destroy this body. Put the card into your handheld device, and I can continue to speak to you."

I did as told, unsure of what else I could do besides listen to her.

"Now, press the green button to your left. This will send me to the scooping room."

I did as told, pressing the button underneath the conveyor belt. Baby’s body disappeared from sight soon.

"You must follow my instructions in Funtime Auditorium," Baby explained. "Ballora is going to follow you. She will try to catch you. I will help you avoid her. She will not follow you inside the scooping room. She is afraid. Go back now."

I exited the room, and once I did, I heard Baby’s voice again. As she gave orders, I listened to her and followed her instructions.

"Go forward... Stop. Go forward and left..."

As I did so, something started squishing under my feet, causing me to stop.

"Keep going..." Baby said.

I shivered and continued on, wincing at every step I took due to the grotesque sound. I had a feeling that I was near where the technician was hung, making my stomach turn at every thought that crossed my mind.

"Stop. Be silent," Baby ordered. "Go forward and left... Stop. Go forward. You are almost there... Stop. She is right in front of you. Don't move. She is here to help, Ballora. She is not here to hurt us. Ballora, she is here to help us... Go forward again. Ballora is behind you. She is afraid of the scooping room. She will not follow you."

"Warning: You've entered a highly dangerous area," HandUnit responded once I closed the door behind me. "You have entered from Maintenance Hatch 1B, reserved for cleaning and repair of the scooper. Entering this side of the room is strictly prohibited by unauthorized persone-"

"You are in the scooping room now," Baby said, cutting HandUnit off. "Funtime Foxy has already been here today. Funtime Freddy has already been here today. Ballora has already been here today. Circus Baby has already been here today."

I could tell they had been. Their body parts lay scattered before me, destroyed and ready to be scrapped.

"I've been out before, but they always put me back," Baby continued. "They always put us back inside. There's nowhere for us to hide here. There is nowhere to go... when we look like this. But, if we looked like you, then we could hide. If we looked like you, then we would have somewhere to go."

A figure appeared behind the window of the room, opposite to me and swaying from side to side as it stared at me. There were wires hanging off of it here and there, but that was all I could make out of the figure besides a mask similar to the one hanging above the vent leading to Baby’s room covering his face. He was definitely an endoskeleton, and he was one I haven’t met before.

"The scooper only hurts for a moment," Baby finished before an all too familiar beeping filled the room. I had just enough time to register this and move as the scooper jumped to life and tried to hit me. I got out of the way just in time for it to miss my torso, its main target, but a sharp pain radiated up my arm as I slipped out of the room and ran to the other side of Funtime Auditorium. 

"Stop her, Ennard!" Baby called, and I heard someone or something sprinting towards me as I slammed the door shut behind me.

"It seems that you have accidentally wandered into a restricted area," HandUnit said. "Due to the sensitive nature of the materials that you may be exposed to here, you will not be allowed to leave until the cleanup crew arrives at 6 am. So hang tight. Rest assured that you will be promptly rescued, fired, then sent home. Thank you for being an employee. We hope your experience has not been as regrettable as ours."

As the HandUnit spoke, I took the time to observe my surroundings. The setup was much like when I first started working at Freddy’s, though three monitors sat on the desk, there was a vent I’d likely need to watch above the desk, pipes were going through the room with a speaker in-between them, and a keypad sat to the left of a poster of Baby. A little Golden Freddy plushie sat between the fan and the monitors, and I picked it up as I began checking the tablet connected to the cameras around the facility.

Baby’s voice began speaking, causing me to jump.

"Why didn’t you trust me?"

I winced as the pain in my arm became unbearable and looked down at it, instantly regretting my decision. The scooper had gotten my arm, and though I knew the bone wasn’t broken, the damage would most likely leave permanent scarring.

My breath hitched as tears stung my eyes, the sight worse than what I actually felt.

()()() Warning: gore. Skip to the next part if you’re squeamish. ()()()

Chunks of flesh hung loosely along my arm, torn up by the scooper in a long path from my wrist to the center of my upper arm. Blood gushed from the wound, painting the entire limb a sickening crimson color as it trickled to the floor to pool underneath me. Shreds of what was left of my sleeve mingled with the ragged pieces of my arm, turning a deep maroon as it absorbed the red liquid.

()()() End gory scene. ()()()

Slowly and carefully, I picked the pieces of what was once my sleeve out of the wound, wincing whenever I brushed nerves underlying the damage and setting my limb aflame with deep, throbbing pain. A lightheadedness I had never known before filled my mind, and my vision blurred every so often, but I had to fight through it. I had to treat the wound, or at least wrap it to quell the bleeding. I had to survive the night.

I ripped my intact sleeve off and wrapped my damaged arm with it as a makeshift bandage before turning my attention back to the screen of the tablet.

"Why didn’t you trust me?" Baby asked again.

I flipped through the cameras, only to see the figure from the window of the scooping room crawling through the vent in front of me on CAM05. I could only guess that the entity was Ennard, the name of whom Baby yelled out as I ran.

"Why didn’t you believe me?" Baby asked almost sadly.

I closed the vent and checked the cameras on the tablet once more.

"Sometimes I don’t understand why people do the things that they do," Baby continued, leaving pauses between each sentence while I kept checking the cameras for the figure. "I thought you liked me. I thought I did everything right. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but we need you so that we can leave. We need you, so that we can hide. We need you, so that we can look like you. If they find us like this, we won’t be able to try again. You must help us. You must let us inside the room. You won’t die and it will only hurt for a moment."

All throughout this, I concentrated on Ennard and ignored Baby’s words, putting every ounce of strength and focus I had into learning his strategies and keeping him out while using as little power from the room as possible. Slowly but steadily, the clock counted up towards 6 am, as well as the power down to 0%. Just as the power reached 1%, the clock chimed 6 am. It was over. I was finally free.

"I will find a way out," Baby said almost angrily before her voice faded.

As the adrenaline wore off, I found myself unable to move, completely exhausted and faint from the ordeal. I could feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness. I fought to stay awake, though my body told me to rest. I knew I was fighting a losing battle, and as the last of my strength left me, a man dressed in a cleanup crew uniform entered the room and gaped at me. He shouted behind him to someone out of my line of sight, though I couldn’t hear him clearly. His words were muffled. I noticed footsteps coming towards me, and then I was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys have no idea how difficult it was for me to write this part. I'm still unsure if I did a good job on it. I wanted to keep the description of Mike's injury at a minimum, so sorry that it's only one paragraph long (if even that). I'm not used to writing gory content.


	12. Hospitals and Endoskeletons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

White. 

That was all I could make out as my eyes opened.

I felt like I was floating, and yet something seemed to weigh me down at the same time.

I couldn’t find the strength to move.

The bright white around me began to hurt my eyes, and I closed them, easing the pressure in the back of my skull that had started making itself known. In the blackness I could hear beeping, and I immediately tensed, afraid I was still at Circus Baby’s in the scooping room, the machine about to jump to life and end mine.

'Am I dead?' I wondered, afraid I was going to be forced to relive my last moments for all eternity as some spirits are told to do on those Ghostbuster wannabe shows I used to watch as a teen.

But then I noticed the beeping was at a higher pitch than the one in the scooping room was, and was at a somewhat steady pace despite the rate speeding up. I realized it was matching my heartbeat almost perfectly, the heartbeat I could just barely feel thudding in my chest when I focused on it.

I tried opening my eyes again, and everything seemed to come into focus now that I was fully awake and aware. There was still a bright white around me, but I noticed right above me was a fluorescent light surrounded by white ceiling tiles. I focused on the pattern the lights and tiles made as I tried to get any part of my body to move. 

Two tiles, one light, two tiles, one light.

They went like that each way throughout the room. White painted walls met my sight next as I managed to start turning my head from side to side to look around better. 

The room was fairly small, meant for only one person and a few visitors. A light shaded oak door stood at one wall with a gray metal frame around it and two panels of glass on each side of the door with small white curtains on them. A window looked out into the sky next to me on the opposite wall from the door, large white curtains hanging from the sides there, too. The brown branches and green foliage of a nearby tree stood in my view of the outside, and the light blue of the sky with small white clouds passing was a calming thing to observe.

After a moment, the memories of the previous night flooded my mind, making me wonder why I wasn’t in any pain. That gash to my arm had been a bad one. I looked at said arm and noticed it had been properly wrapped in white bandages and lay limp at my side on top of the white sheets covering my lower body. I must have been numbed by pain meds.

I sat up a little, or at least tried to since my body still felt heavy. An IV connected to a bag with a clear fluid in it was attached to my good arm, and an oxygen mask covered my mouth and nose. A few chairs were scattered around the room, a single bedside table stood between me and the window, and a small flat screen TV sat on the wall directly in front of me. On the bedside table was a small vase with blue and white flowers in it, the Golden Freddy plushy I had forgotten I grabbed at Circus Baby’s, a bunch of what I assumed to be "Get Well" cards, and…a small basket with an assortment of butters?

I shook my head and picked up the Golden Freddy plushy with my good arm, laying back down and hugging it to my chest. Not too long after, a nurse around my age with dark brown curly hair that reached her shoulders walked into the room, her emerald eyes focused on a clipboard in her hand before she looked up and noticed that I was conscious.

"Ah, Ms. Schmidt," she said. "I see you’re finally awake."

I nodded. "How long was I out for?"

"Hm," she hummed a bit, looking back at the clipboard. "You were admitted here five days ago."

"Five days?!" I cried out in disbelief.

She nodded. "You had lost a lot of blood and were close to going into shock when you were brought in. We had to put you into a temporary coma until you were stable so there wouldn’t be too many complications. Most of the surgeries you needed for your arm are done, but you might need a skin graft later on if the wound doesn’t heal the way it should."

I nodded, taking in her words with furrowed brows. So much had happened without my knowing.

She smiled at me kindly in what I knew was an attempt to help calm me. "The doctor was able to use the skin still connected to your arm as a sort of makeshift skin graft, though, so if you do have to have an actual skin graft done, it won’t be as bad as if they had to start from scratch. Anyway, there are some visitors here for you, if you feel like seeing them."

I nodded again, and the nurse left. I sat up the best I could, moving so that my back rested against the headrest of the bed. It was a moment before I heard a commotion in the hall, and Becca burst into the room and ran towards me, locking me in the tightest hug I’d ever gotten from her.

"Becca!... Can’t…breathe…" I gasped. It didn’t actually hurt me, but her grip was a bit too strong for my liking and made it difficult to breathe properly, and I was sure it would have hurt if I wasn’t on anything to block the pain.

She pulled away with a small "sorry" and allowed me to see that she wasn’t the only one who had come to check on me. Behind her were Jeremy, Fritz, Mr. Fred, and even Mr. Afton.

"Geez, Mike," Jeremy said in a joking tone. "First you disappear, and then you almost die. Do we need to start babysitting you to keep you out of trouble?"

I laughed a bit. "Sorry, sorry. Things turned out a lot more complicated than I anticipated."

"Still, we’re glad you’re alright, Mike," Mr. Fred said.

I smiled and held out the Golden Freddy plushy to Mr. Afton. "I’m guessing you want this back, right?"

He shook his head. "Keep it. After everything you went through, you deserve it. Plus, there’s not really any place to put it now. Circus Baby’s Pizza World has been closed and is up for sale."

I nodded. "And what are you going to do with the animatronics?"

"Mr. Fred’s taking care of them," Mr. Afton replied. "I have to go now. There’s some business that needs to be taken care of. I hope you’ll feel better, Michelle."

He left before I could respond. I shook my head, and then turned to Mr. Fred.

"What are you doing with the animatronics from Circus Baby’s?" I asked.

Becca, Jeremy, Fritz, and I looked expectantly at him, and he chuckled.

"I bought them off of William," he replied. "I’m sure they’ll make a good addition to the place once you’re healed and ready to repair them. Until then, they’ll be in the Parts & Service room."

I forced a smile. "Great," I said, trying to add enthusiasm to my voice when in reality I wasn’t too fond of the idea of having them around. They did try to kill me, after all.

Mr. Fred walked out of the room, followed not long after by Fritz who said he wanted to visit some friends he’d made here in the hospital that hadn’t been discharged yet. Jeremy soon followed, and Becca left too, saying she wanted to talk to Mr. Fred quickly.

I leaned back until my head bumped against the wall, and then closed my eyes and sighed. "Just great."

()()()()

It was a few weeks after when I was finally released from the hospital. I was healed as much as I could be, the injury on my arm now a raw scar that I knew would never go away. It still hurt a bit, since I did need a skin graft to correct some extra damage my arm had taken, but other than that all I was told to do was keep it clean and wrapped for at least another two weeks.

The first thing I did when I got home was eat and sleep. The food at the hospital was bland at best, so it was hard to eat anything, and I was grateful for the snacks Becca and Jeremy brought me every day I was there. That part was Jeremy’s idea since Fritz went through the same thing during his stays there for chemotherapy. I also had trouble sleeping most of the time. I guess it was the fact I was trying to sleep in an unfamiliar place that gave me the temporary insomnia. Not surprising since I’d always had trouble sleeping at sleepovers growing up. I was thoroughly exhausted.

Twenty four hours passed, and I felt better than I had while in the hospital and decided to go to Freddy’s to take a look at what remained of the animatronics from Circus Baby’s. I groaned as I took one of the pain pills the hospital staff gave me, my arm hurting a bit worse than it had the day before, and made my way to Freddy’s.

It’s not that I didn’t want to go back to Freddy’s- I really did- but the animatronics from Baby’s were there and I was still wary about them. They did try to kill me. They were in pieces at the moment, though, from what Becca, Jeremy, and Mr. Fred had told me, so I could modify their designs slightly to make them safer, and maybe if the spirits were still in them and calmed down a bit I could befriend them like I did with the others.

Mr. Fred greeted me and we talked for a while, mainly about how I was doing, if I felt better, etc., before I made my way to the Parts & Service room.

The scene inside was similar to what I saw at Circus Baby’s, minus the scooper. Flashes of that night entered my mind, making a shiver run up my spine, but I mentally shook it away to focus. Sections of exoskeletons were scattered around the room, each one mixing with pieces from the other Circus Baby’s Pizza World animatronics in unorganized piles. Off to the side were six bundles of wires morphed into the shapes of the animatronics from Circus Baby’s, revealing more detailed versions of the endoskeletons than the ones I was familiar with here at Freddy’s.

I picked up a piece of Ballora’s face, then looked over at her endoskeleton. Her eyes were closed. When I went over to try and open them, they wouldn’t budge. They had been glued or soldered or something to keep them shut.

With a sigh, I began my work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the hiatus with updating this story. School has been taking most of my time, and work on top of it has been stressful.


	13. Night 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Sister Location.

"Are you insane, Mike?!" Marion shouted at me, his normal smile turned into a frown. "Why would you rebuild them after they tried to kill you?!"

I sat next to Bonnie on the Show Stage, his arm carefully draped around my shoulders to avoid hurting my injured arm any more than it already was. Becca sat on my other side, Freddy mimicking Bonnie as he sat with his arm draped around her shoulders. Jeremy stood next to Bonbon on the side, frowning a bit with his hands shoved into his pockets. Springtrap sat on the floor and leaned against the edge of the stage, witnessing the scene unfold. The others were scattered around the area, either watching what was happening and looking at me sadly or trying to avoid the conflict altogether by ignoring us.

I sighed. "I couldn’t just leave them like that. They didn’t deserve it."

"'Didn’t deserve it'? Mike, they tried to kill you!" Marion yelled.

"And you didn’t?" I countered.

The Puppet was silent for a moment. He soon shook his head, obviously trying to clear his thoughts.  
"I had my reasons for doing it, though," he argued.

"So did they!" I defended once more. "They were angry and hurt and scared. They didn’t fully understand what they were doing and didn’t realize the consequences of their actions. They just wanted to get out of that building, and I can’t blame them! I’d want to get out too if I went through what they went through!"

Marion let out a loud exhale. "You shouldn’t be defending them. They attempted to take your life and ended up injuring you in the process. They are dangerous, and I doubt a change of scenery will alter anything."

"That doesn’t mean I can’t give them a chance," I responded.

"Why would you?" Marion asked.

"You gave Jeremy and me the chance to prove ourselves, even though you didn’t like us, didn’t you?" I countered.

Marion was silent for another moment before he sighed. "Yes, I did."

"And you’re at least accepting Springtrap is a part of Freddy’s if not beginning to forgive him, even though he made a lot of bad decisions in the past, right?" I continued.

Marion looked at Springtrap, who met his gaze before looking away. The others glanced at the decaying yellow rabbit sadly, and I could see pity and empathy in their eyes. They all had heard about his past through Marion, and that seemed to help them take a step towards being able to forgive him. The Puppet looked back down at me. "That is debatable, but I am sure it is safe to say you are correct."

"Then why can’t we do the same for them?" I questioned. "They’ve been through so much pain and suffering, so why can’t we give them the benefit of the doubt and try to help them?"

There was a moment of silence before a new voice was heard.

"H-hello?"

That was Baby’s voice. I knew it all too well. This time, though, she sounded as if she was hesitant.

I looked over at the door leading from the Main Hall, seeing the familiar redhead, her friends accompanying behind her, all looking as if they shared her sense of unease. I got up from my spot on the stage and cautiously made my way over to them as they entered the room, scanning over my work carefully to make sure nothing was loose or out of place.

Funtime Foxy, who I nicknamed Roxy, Funtime Freddy, who I’d taken to calling Fred, and the Bonbon puppet, who I deemed Bo, all looked the way they did back at Circus Baby’s Pizza World.

Baby also kept the same appearance as she had back at the other pizzeria, though I worked more on her endoskeleton to make her ice cream function more safe and kid-friendly, replacing the smaller version of the scooper from the scooping room with a thin metal ring that holds ice cream cones and adding an internal ice cream dispenser so that all that would come out was the small hoop with the frozen treat.

Ballora was now able to walk normally instead of spin, and I managed to undo the welding that kept her eyes shut and allow her to see. Half a dozen of those wooden ballerina puppets from Circus Baby’s clung to her, hanging off her arms and perching on her shoulders, having stowed away in her exoskeleton until I found them and decided to let them stay since they hadn’t actually caused any trouble besides scaring me.

I had no idea what to do with Ennard, since he didn’t really have an exoskeleton to work with, but I fixed his endoskeleton the best I could so that his wires wouldn’t hang loose and stick out as they had before and had a friend working on an exoskeleton so he would match Baby’s appearance later on.

"Welcome to Freddy’s," I said, trying to keep my voice light.

The animatronics from Circus Baby’s eyed me carefully. It was obvious they recognized me from before, as their gazes kept drifting to my bandaged arm. It was a long, tense moment before anyone spoke. Ennard was the one who shared his thoughts, slightly startling me since I didn’t know he could speak.

"Why did you rebuild us?"

His voice was full of caution, tone accusing, as if he believed there was something I wanted from them in my act of reconstructing them. 

Bonnie, who had walked up behind me when I spoke, wrapped an arm around my shoulders protectively as if daring them to show any signs of aggression towards me or my friends. I mentally shrugged off Bonnie’s actions and answered Ennard’s question.

"Call it a second chance. After everything you’ve been through, I think you need one."

They were all silent, confusion clouding their expressions. They looked between one another, trying to understand my words. Baby finally broke their stupor.

"But why?! After everything we put you through, why would you want to rebuild us?! You should hate us for what we did! Look at your arm!" She gestured to said limb, her voice cracking and glitching with emotion as she spoke. "We did that to you! We hurt you! Why would you let us live after that?!"

I could see the hurt in Baby’s eyes, and my heart ached at her words. I moved out of Bonnie’s hold and placed a hand on her still outstretched arm. She gasped at the contact, looking down at my hand on her arm before looking back up at me. I gave her a small smile, trying to show her there were no hard feelings between us. I was sure if her eyes could water, they would have. 

A violent jolt ran throughout Baby’s body and a high pitched squeak escaped her. Slowly, she sank to her knees, burying her face in her hands as she began sobbing.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!" she repeated over and over, and the urge to comfort her overtook me. I tried to console her, but it only seemed I was making it worse.

"Are we going to go back?" Ballora spoke up, and I could hear panic lacing her voice.

Baby went quiet at the ballerina’s words, a slight shiver running through her. If I hadn’t had my hand on her arm through the entirety of her breakdown, I would have missed it entirely.

Jeremy was the one to answer her.

"No. Circus Baby’s Pizza World was shut down after Mike was sent to the hospital."

"Then where are we gonna go?" Fred asked, exchanging glances with Bo.

"You’re staying here at Freddy’s," I responded.

"What?" Baby asked, looking up at me. The others gave me unsure stares, obviously uncertain if this was good or bad.

"You wanted to leave Circus Baby’s Pizza World, right?" Becca questioned.

When baby nodded, she continued speaking.

"You’re not trapped there anymore. You’re free."

"No, we’re not!" Bo yelled before covering his mouth, his ears sinking as he realized he just admitted to something they didn’t know my friends and I already knew.

"Yeah, you’re not," I said. "You’re still trapped in the animatronics."

The entire group was silent, and I stood up as Baby moved to join her friends, clearly shocked at my words.

"You," Roxy began before seeming to gulp, "you know about that? But-but how?"

"Because you’re not the only ones going through this," Jeremy spoke, coming to stand next to me with Becca joining us on his other side. "You’re not the only souls trapped in those machines."

"What?" Ballora asked, sounding awestruck.

I smiled sadly. "All the animatronics here," I began, gesturing behind us to our friends, "they’re souls trapped in the suits, too. They were all murdered by the same person who killed you, so they understand you."

"Why are you doing this?" Ennard questioned, a tint of anger in his tone. "Why are you telling us this?"

"I want to help you," I answered. "I don’t like the idea of anyone having to suffer, even after death. Especially when those suffering are children. You didn’t deserve that. You don’t have to live in anger and fear anymore. You’re free from Circus Baby’s Pizza World, and I’m sure we can find a way to free your souls from the animatronics, too."

The group from Circus Baby’s exchanged looks, silently conversing between themselves, before Ennard finally nodded and Baby began to speak.

"Thank you, Mike. You don’t know how much we appreciate this."

"What’s going to happen to us now?" Ballora asked.

I smiled. "You’ll be joining Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mr. Fred actually decided to renovate the building again once you guys came in, and we’re expanding the building to include the original Fazbear Crew, as well as the Toys and Circus Baby’s Pizza World characters. There are some blueprints in the desk in the Office. I can bring them out here, if you want to see them."

They all nodded, their eyes shining with excitement.

"I wish to talk with them first, Mike," Marion started, coming up to stand in front of me now while facing Baby and her friends. "There are a few conditions you’ll need to follow. First, you are not to harm anyone who comes into this building unless it’s absolutely necessary. Mike has made some changes to your original designs, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem."

As he talked and the other animatronics came up to join in on the conversation, Becca and Jeremy following not long after, I walked to the Office to get some pain meds for my arm, as it was beginning to hurt again, and grab the blueprints to show the others, going to the bag I had brought first to retrieve my pill bottle. 

The sound of quiet mechanical footsteps caught my attention as I rummaged through the bag, and I turned to see Springtrap standing at the doorway of the Office, leaning against the frame.

"Are you going to tell them?" he asked quietly.

"You mean about what you did?" I replied.

He nodded.

I sighed. "I guess that’s up to you. They’ll find out sooner or later, but I think it’s best if you tell them. You were the one who did it, after all. But I’d wait until they settle down. Forcing too much onto their minds could have bad results, so we’ll just have to take it one step at a time."

There was a loud crash from down the hall, followed by laughter. I smiled as I listened to my friends trying to talk through their gasps between fits of hysterics, though I couldn’t make out what exactly they were saying. I could see Springtrap doing the same, a small and sad smile beginning to form on his face.

"Sounds like they’re getting along already," I commented, making the yellow rabbit look over at me and nod.

A short silence passed.

"Y’know," I began again, "I’m sure the others would vouch for you if the souls from Circus Baby’s get angry when you decide to tell them."

He laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, they probably would. But I deserve everything they do to get back at me as revenge for what I pulled. They should be angry at me…I’m the monster who took everything from them."

"And yet you regret what you’ve done," I added. "That’s a big step right there. Most murderers, even on the brink of death, likely never regret their bad decisions or want to try to make up for them. You may have been a monster back then, but you’ve changed. Whatever made you kill in the first place isn’t affecting you now. It’s best for all of us if we put this behind us in the past where it belongs."

We both fell silent after that, and I went back to rummaging through my bag. When I finally found the pill bottle I had stored there, my hand brushed against something soft, reminding me of one more thing I wanted to do before the night was over. Carefully, I removed the Golden Freddy plushie from its confines after taking the bottle out. Looking over at Springtrap, I noticed he was looking down at the floor with his arms crossed, not paying any attention to what I was doing. I smiled to myself, stood up, and walked over to him, catching his attention. I handed the plushie to him, and when he looked at me curiously, I answered his unspoken question before he could ask it.

"I found that plushie in the security office at Circus Baby’s the last night I worked there. Mr. Afton said I could keep it, and I figured you might want it instead."

He gazed between me and the stuffed toy for a moment before a small, almost unnoticeable smile twitched onto his face.

"Thank you, Mike," was all he said before slipping the plushie into one of the torn out portions of his suit for safe-keeping and walking back down the hall out of the office.

I nodded. Remembering what I was doing before, I took two of the small capsules out from the bottle and swallowed them along with some water from a water bottle I had bought at a convenience store before my shift. I made my way over to the desk, kneeling down and opening the bottom drawer to grab the blueprints Mr. Fred had stored there for the future project. Once I had the paper in hand, I looked up so I could set it on the desk and read the design specifications one more time, only to flinch back quickly. One of the wooden ballerinas accompanying Ballora sat on the edge of the desk right in front of me. 

Cautiously, I leaned toward the wooden figure so I could take in the few features it had on its face, and it tilted its head as if curious about what I was doing. My mind flashed back to the night I was trapped in the suit after basically being kidnapped, and a sense of dread came over me as the figure remained still for what felt like forever. The moment was broken, though, as the figure jumped onto my face and climbed up to sit on my head, giggling girlishly the entire time. I chuckled at the figure’s actions and made my way down the hall with the blueprints in hand, making sure the little ballerina wouldn’t fall off.

The other Minireenas (as I would later know them to be called) jumped off of Ballora and ran over to me as I returned to the Show Stage, climbing up to join their friend while laughing and giggling. Everyone either chuckled or snickered at the scene, amused by the wooden ballerinas’ antics.

"They seem to like you," Ballora commented, moving closer to me and watching her little ballerinas as they gripped my hair to keep their balance while perching on my shoulders and trying to climb up from there, the figure from the office protecting its place on top of my head.

I nodded, careful not to knock the wooden figure off.

"I have the blueprints, if you want to see them," I said.

All the animatronics gathered around the Show Stage as I set the paper on it and opened it, revealing what would later become the new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. This was going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead, guys!
> 
> Sorry for the month-long hiatus, but I've been working non-stop this week whenever I've had free time to finish and edit this. And sorry if it's not the best, but it's the best I could do with what little time I've had between work, classes, and studying. 
> 
> And if you want to know what the blueprint looks like: https://puppyluv230.deviantart.com/art/Sister-Location-Aftermath-Map-732334110
> 
> I hope you've all enjoyed reading this.


	14. Author's Note

Hey people.

If you guys are wondering, no, I'm not continuing this story, but once again, I will make one-shots for it if requested.

And if you have any complaints about how this and my other FNAF fics are not accurate to the game, remember, THIS IS FANFICTION! IT'S NOT ALWAYS ACCURATE TO THE SUBJECT AND IS BASED ON THEORIES!

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read and possibly review my work. I'm grateful for the support I've gotten so far.

~ PuppyLuv230


End file.
